MULTAN, April 17: The selection board of the Bahauddin Zakariya University remained inconclusive on the matter of appointment of professors in the departments of Mass Communication and Chemistry.

The board meeting was held here on Saturday with BZU vice-chancellor Prof Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry in the chair. There were two candidates for the professor post in Mass Communication, Dr Muhammad Khalid and Dr Karim Malik.

Dr Khalid reportedly gave a presentation to the board members that his rival candidate did not qualify for the post for various reasons, including proven cases of malpractices in conducting examinations. He also expressed mistrust about fairness of the VC in the matter.

Similarly, a candidate for professorship in chemistry - Dr Riffat Parveen pleaded before the board that her referees had a bias against her. At this, the board decided to re-advertize the two posts.

The remaining items on the board's agenda were however disposed of smoothly.

Sources in the university said the name of Dr Karim Malik was not part of the meeting's regular agenda as the VC pushed it as a current work item a few days before the selection board meeting.

Earlier, some board members had also objected to the inclusion of his name in the list of probable candidates for professorship. It is learnt that an inquiry against Dr Malik is under process.

Recently, some BZU syndicate members have urged the authorities concerned to stop the vice-chancellor from taking any far-reaching steps, especially appointment and promotion of the academic staff at the fag end of his term in the office.

In a letter to the Punjab governor/chancellor, two BZU syndicate members said the four-year term of VC Prof Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry was going to end by July 14 this year, but he was taking decisions in haste which would go against the interest of the university. The letter was also sent to the Punjab chief minister and the provincial Education department.

They pointed out that the VC had called a selection board meeting on Saturday to oblige his favourite teachers with undue favour just three months before his retirement. "By giving out-of-turn promotions to his cronies the VC also wants to punish all those deserving teachers who raised voice of dissent against his autocratic way of running the university", they said.

The VC, they alleged, deliberately scheduled the selection board meetings to influence the elections of various elected academic bodies of the university.

The previous board meeting was held around the academic staff association's election date and the forthcoming meeting around the elections of academic council, which were to be held on April 20.

Under the circumstances, they said it would be in the interest of justice and overall university academia that the selection board meeting be directed not to take decisions.

It may be mentioned here that the BZU syndicate meeting is also scheduled to be held on Sunday (today).